Working Hard or Hardly Working?

Being busy is not the same thing as working hard. An engine can rev high and the car still not go anywhere. Noise and smoke is no guarantee of real, hard work. 

Real hard work is good work, and it’s good work in the first instance because it’s obedient work. Obedient work is blessed because God gave it to you. Did God give you papers to organize? Homework to complete? A car to fix, products or services to sell, something to design or build, children to care for, a home to clean, a meal to make? If God gave it to you, the task is dignified by the One who gave it. If the King asks you to clean or bake or build or organize something, the work is a royal task. 

There are various ways to be lazy. In our modern world, it’s actually pretty difficult to do nothing at all. But scrolling Facebook or watching Youtube videos can come close, even if you keep telling yourself you’re looking for something worthwhile. Another form of laziness is having four things that need doing, two of which need to be done now, and picking one of the other two because it’s what you’d rather be doing. There you are doing one of your jobs, staying busy, but avoiding the work you should be doing now. You might break a sweat. You might be tired when you’re done, but you’re actually being idle. You’re not being productive in the way God wants you to be. Sometimes the good work is staying at the office late, and sometimes it’s spending a Saturday playing with the kids in the backyard.

Related to all of this is Sabbath rest. When God commanded Israel to take one day off every seven days, He told them it was because they were slaves in Egypt but now they were free. Sabbath keeping is a proclamation of Christian freedom. And never forget: In the Old Covenant, Israel imitated God by working first and then resting. But since Jesus rose from the dead on the first day of the week, in the New Covenant we rest in Him first, and then we get to work.  

Photo by Todd Quackenbush on Unsplash